‘More ways to improve China but won’t copy West’

President Xi Jinping on Wednesday vowed to pursue more reforms to improve ‘weak and unsound’ areas but said that China would not ‘completely copy the foreign experience’ and uphold socialism with Chinese characteristics.

‘We will try our best to reform areas that are weak and unsound and learn from the good experiences of foreign countries, but we will never completely copy the foreign experience,’ Xi said while addressing a symposium to mark the 110th of Deng Xiaoping, who overturned Mao’s Marxist ideology and introduced widespread economic reforms three decades ago.

The reference to foreign democracy was interpreted by observers as western democracy. China will never belittle itself nor forget its roots, Xi said, adding that the country’s contemporary history has proven the only right way to solve problems in China is to do so in a Chinese way, based on the Chinese reality, he said.

China is still on a long and harsh path to reform, opening up and modernising itself, along which creativity should be respected, Xi said.

‘We should always be brave enough to explore and create,’ Xi said. ‘We shall proceed with reform and opening up without hesitation.’

While China pursued economic reforms it remained a one party with the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) controlling all aspects of governance including the military. Xi who acquired the image of ‘New Deng’ as he emerged as the most powerful leader heading, Presidency, Party and military, vowed to uphold socialism with Chinese characteristics and China’s independent ‘path, theory and system’, which observers say effectively meant continuation of the one party system.

Xi recalled how his predecessors pursued the path outlined by Deng and made China what it is on Wednesday.